Sliding louvered doors are an alternative to louvered bi-folding shutters. Sliding louvered doors are often mounted in front of sliding glass doors. Sliding glass doors have an operational door and a stationary door. The operational door has a handle which varies with each manufacturer and presents a technical glitch to interior shutter door applications. Sliding louvered doors generally consist of a three piece frame (post and lintel construction method), supporting a pair of louvered sliding doors or a pair of bi-folding louvered shutters. In this type of construction the lintel must be supported by two vertical posts. The size (depth) of the vertical posts is determined by the handle protrusion. In order for the louvers to be opened or closed the shutter or louvered door must be positioned forward from the handle of the glass sliding doors a distance determined by the type of louver. These technicalities caused the standard 5′, 6′, 8′ sliding patio shutter doors and frames to be customized due to complex details arising from the different patio door handles and their inconsistent installation patterns. In order to permit the doors to slide past each other, the two doors are mounted parallel to each other and the two doors 20 are separated by a distance. The installation of plastic nylon guides on the floor provides directional guidance.
Another problem with the previous louvered sliding door designs is that the louvers had to be in the closed position to ensure that the doors can slide past each other without hitting or the doors had to be spaced far apart from each other to ensure the louvers do not hit the louvers of the other door. Also, previous applications of louvered shutters required a pair of bi-folding shutters due to louver length limits. Present manufacturing methods of drilling standard 1 ⅜″ and 2″ stiles in the center creates the limitations above. The combined limitations above and their complexity held back the popularity of previous louvered sliding door designs.